St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-05-19
FACING THE sUNRIsE--No. XII.

FACING THE SUNRISE--NO.X XII
Castle Gate and vaIIey.-The Black Cam
yon OF the GunnIson.-MarshallP Pass
The Royal Gorge.-The Scenic Route
OF the World:
1t was happy arrangement OF
Messrs. Raymond g. Whitcomb which
brought our party East from Salt Lake
via the Denver g. Rio Grande railway.
Starting from Salt Lake City the road
runs in a south-easterly direction
through Utah and Colorado to Denver,
tlIe capital of the latter state. The
road is narrOw-gauge, and the reason
for it became apparent in few hours.
The morning of May 2 was uneventful.
The ground was covered with a light
snow which fell the day before, and as
the apple trees were in blossom and
other trees in nearly full leaf the snow
looked decidedly out of season. The
train spun over the fertile Utah plains,
past Utah Lake, and stopped at Provo
for dinner. While waiting at the sta
ton, some of the party beset an old
Mormon on the platform and ratified
him with ecclesiastical questions. 1t
was an uneven contest, but the Mormon
held his own tOlerably well. His rea-
son for the belief that is in him is
briefly this: "The Bible teaches
Gods revelation to man. He revealed
himself to his prophets in olden time
and the prophets told the revelation to
the people. 1t was the same now.
God reveals himself to his latter-day
saints through his prophet, Father
Taylor, Brigham Young's successor,
and through him to the Mormon
church. The Bible sanctions plural
ity of wives the patriarchs all SO liv-
ed; aud while it expressly fOrbids
adultery it nowhere fOrbids more than
one wife therefore the Mormon faith
is true and all others are false" 1t
should be remembered that the Nor
mons cling to the Bible with tenacity
and can quote it with alacrity.
After leaving Provo the train began
to climb. 1t is tOrtuOus road with
heavy grades. 1t took three lOcOmO-
tives' to haul the ninety passengers
and one hundred big trunks up the
hill. The curves are very short and
almost continuous. 1t was quite COM
mon to pass over curves so short that
passengers in the seventh car plainly
saw the locomotives and the five front
cars; and passengers in the seventh
car frequently saw both ends of the
train of nine cars at the same time.
1t was after passing the divide of
this Wahsatch range of mountains
that the chief interest of the day be-
gan. An hour or two after the road
begins to descend the grade it enters
ragged canyon which ends in what is
known as Castle Gate. This is two
bare towering cliffs of perpendicular
rock over four hundred feet high.
Although they are not directly OppO
site each other they look as though
they were at a little distance off, with
just room for the dbed between.
They give the appearance of two giant
gate-pOsts and are as perpendicularly
erect as walls of masonry. After pass
ing through this agate" the road en-
tiers wide valley which resembles a
billOwy desert. There is no vegetable
or animal life in sight save an Occa-
az 81 Ii fl.,I
mound of sand. The road follows the
bed of a dry OF nearly dry river, while
a mile or so away OH either side the
valley is guarded by singular rock
formation which closely resembles
walled cities. For miles these great
walls appear, hundreds of feet high,
with an occasional dome or castle lift
ed above the square face of the con-
tinuOus battlements. More than one
exclaimed, "That looks like Quebec )"
while others insisted that the similari-
ty to castles and walled cities of the
old world was very marked. When
some other sights of this trip fade
from memory, Castle Valley and Castle
Gate will remain, so deeply do they
impress the beholder.
Tuesday morning brought a differ
ent scene. Following the CimarrOn
creek down a few miles the road enters
the Black Canyon of the GunnisOn riv-
er. For nine miles the railroad follows
up this rapid and angry torrent, be-
tween steep, towering walls, much of
the way said to be more than one
thousand feet high, and so close to-
gether that in many places the rocky
sides of the mountain had to be blast
ed out to make room for even a mar
row. gauge track. Once in a while the
railway crosses tue noisy stream, and
more than once the passengers are
brook, while in one place there is a
very good miniature of the Bridal Veil
fall of the Yosemite. For miles the
walls on either side are impressive, but
1t one point towering monument of
stone thousand feet in height, stands
put alone. This is Currecanti Needle.
There was hardly time after passing
through the Black Canyon to digest it's
grandeur and the excellent dinner at
Sargent, before another and still grand
IT scene opened to the gaze. Dividing
he train and taking three locomotives,
he party began climbing the main
ange of the Rocky mountains which
separates the waters of the Atlantic
md Pacific The sumn,it 10 oaarlx, ,